Spike



E. L. D. B. AND J. W. B. BALFOUR.

; SPIKE. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 25. 1920. 7

352,573; PatentedSept. 14, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET1.

v E. L. 0. B. AND J. w. B. BALFOUR.

SPIKE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 25. 1920.

1 3 5 2, 57 3 Patented Sept. 14, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

INVEi/VTJ YS EVA LOUISA DULOIE BAGG BALFOUR AND JOHN,

OFFICE.

WILLIAM BLACKBURN BALFOUR, OF

LONDON, ENGLAND.

SPIKE.

Application filed June 25,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EVA LOUISA DULoIn Base BALFOUR and Joan WILLIAM BLACK- nUnN BALFOUR, subjects of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at 6 Palmerston Mansions, Queens Club Gardens, London, England, have invented new and useful Improvements in Spikes, of'which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in the construction of spikes principally intended for use as railway dog spikes and has more particular reference to the kind of such spikes in which the point is placed on one side of the longitudinal axis of the spike in order to cause the spike when driven into a sleeper or the like to bend and grip the fibers of the wood into which it is driven.

Spikes for the said purpose and of the kind referred to have been formed with barbs or bevel points and a succession of notchesion the shank in order to cause and to facilitate same to bend and travel in a curve in the wood into which the spike is driven. Such band or curvilinear travel of the spike has hitherto been uncertain and often has not been in the direction required to give maximum security to the rail or the like which the spikehad to secure. It has been found that in order to obtain the greatest resistance in the spike against dislodgment, the said curvilinear travel of the spike must be varied in its direction according to the position of the spike'relative to the object it has to secure. Thus, for instance, a spike placed on the inside of the rail it has to secure may bend in a right-angular direction to said rail while on the outside of the rail, opposite the one spike on the inside, it is preferable to place two spikes capable of bending in opposite directions to each other and each direction less than right-angular andiapproximately 45 to the said rail. It has also been found that the degree of inclination of. the bevel face forming the point and the degree of inclination of the surface forming the notches on the shank have a distinct relation to the curvilinear travel of the shank and in order to obtain the proper curve in which the shank should bend, the inclinations of said bevel face and surfaces must be fixed within certain limits which limits have now been fully determined.

The object of the present invention is the Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 14, 1920.

1920. Serial No. 391,739.

construction of a spike which will bend in a definite curve and in a definite direction to suit the purposefor which the spike is intended and the construction is such that in a modified form of the invention thesaid direction may be varied in order to provide a suitablespike for different spiking positions on the rail. Thus, when the modified forms are used in conjunction with each other as a system, they fulfil the above conditions and provide means for securing the rails which give the greatest resistance against dislodgment.

According to this invention, the spike is shaped on one. side of the shank, below the usual plain parallel sides, with a succession.

notches formed by downwardly and inwardlyinclined surfaces each followed by a downwardly and outwardly inclined surface the inclination of which must not be less than 40 and not more than from the vertical. Below the last notch, the side is continued with a plain portion extending vertically from the last notch and in aline ment with the upper plain part. The opposite side of the shank below the upper plain part is plain and is formed tapering and terminates with an inclined portion of greater inclination than the tapering part which inclined portion forms with the opposite vertical portion a chisel-shaped point to the spike. The inclination of the said inclined portion must not be less than 40 and not more than 60 from-the said vertical portion. The two other sides of the shank are running parallel to each other but in the modified form of the invention one or the other of said'sides is beveled off near the point from approximatelynear the beginning of the inclined portion forming the point.

The invention will now be fully described with reference tothe accompanying draw-- provided with the usual laterally extending head although the improvements to be described may equally well be applied to a spike being round in cross-section and having a round head.

In the drawings, the shank of the spike, for a short distance below the head 1 thereof, is formed with plain parallel sides 2 and the axis of this part of the spike will be referred to as the axis of the spike. Below this plain part, one side of the shank is formed with a succession of notches 3 extending laterally across the shank. The said notches are formed by downwardly and inwardly inclined surfaces at followed by downwardly and outwardlyinclined surfaces 5 the inclination of which must not be less than iland not more than 60 from the vertical. The vertical is shown by the dotted lines in Fig. l and the angles the said surfaces make with the vertical plane is indicated at a. Any desired number of notches may be formed in the side of the shank preferably spaced equi-distantly the one from the other and parallel to each other. Below the last notch, the side is continued with a? plain portion 6 extending vertically from the said last notch and in alinenient with the upper plain part 2 of the side. The opposite side of the shank is formed with a plain part 2 immediately below the head as'already stated and below this plain part the side is continued with a plain tapering portion 7 (see Fig. 1). The said tapering portion terminates with an inclined portion 8 of greater inclination than the tapering part and forming with the opposite vertical portion 6 a chiselshaped point to the spike. The inclination of the said inclined portion 8 must not be less than 4.0 and not more than 60 from the said vertical portion 6. The two other sides 9 and 10 of the shank are running parallel to each other as shown in Fig. 2.

In the modified form of the invention as illustrated in Fig. one or the other of the parallel sides 9 and 10 is beveled ofl near the point from approximately near the beginning of the inclined portion 8. The said bevel may extend right across the width of theshank as shown at 11 Fig. 3, or may be taken only partly across and may be formed curved as shown at 12 Fig.

When the spike is driven into a sleeper or the like, the position of the point, being on one side of the axis, in conjunction with the bevel face or faces of same will cause the shank to be deflected away from the axis of the spike (see Fig. 4-.) The degrees of inclination of the said bevel face will regulate the extent of deflection of the shank and the guru e which same is to travel. The direction of the curvilinear travel will depend on the number of bevel faces of the point. T hus, with only one bevel face as shown in Fig. 1 the said direction will be right-angular to the object the spike has to secure while the two bevel faces in the modified form of the invention will each tend to bend the shank in difierent directions right-angular to each other the result of which will be that the shank will be deflected in a direction approximately half way between the two or about to the object the spike has to secure. Such 45 deflection may be either to the right or to the left according to which of the parallel sides 9 and 10 has been beveled 01f. When the modified forms are used in conjunction with each other as a system for spiking rails as shown in Fig. 5 then one spike with a right-angular deflection is placed on the inside of the rail and on the outside of the rail opposite the inside spike are placed two spikes one with a 45 right-handed deflection and the other with a l- 0 left-handed deflection as shown in the drawing.

A spike consisting of a head and a shank. the shank projecting downward from the head and being rectangular in cross-section with parallel front and back faces and parallel side faces immediately below said head. the side faces remaining parallel throughout their entire length, the front face of said shank being inclined slightly toward the back face thereof from a line spaced beneath the head to a line adjacent the point of the spike, the back and front faces being connected at the point by a sharply inclined surface, the lower part of the rear face lying in the same plane as the upper part thereof, said spike having a con tinuous series of equal notches formed in the rear face between the upper and lower parts thereof, said notches each having its upper surface inclined slightly toward the front face of the spike and its lower surface inclined abruptly away from the front face of said spike, the connecting edges between the notches lying in the plane of the upper and lower parts of the back face of the spike. the slightly inclined front face portion being smooth and unbroken though out whereby to offer no obstruction in driving.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification.

lVitnesses PERCY L. TATHAM, S. E. Btmli. 

